Pages

Search

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Life Experience Reflection: Communication

I've been reflecting on what we consider today's modern communications for quite a while and I've come to realize that just because we live in an instant
gratification, high expectation, "respond instantly" (e-Mail, text,
Facebook, IM, Skype, etc) world, it doesn't mean it has to be that way
nor do you have to stress yourself out trying to operate especially in
the "respond instantly" mode...people can actually wait a few minutes,
hours, or even a day for you to respond! Unless it's literally a life or
death situation, They will survive.

Someone well stated recently
that we are spoiled today with instant responses. When I was a kid like
in high school, e-Mail was just surfacing but hardly anyone had it
because technology wasn't there yet. We still used pay phones. We wrote
letters and talked mostly in person. Computers were just coming out such
as the 286 PC, Tandy PCs, etc. A text message was words in a book or a
typed or handwritten note. Smart watches like you saw via a
communicator watch that Dick Tracy had were things of fiction but now
they are a reality.

There
is a balance between personal and business communications but the same
is true of both areas some things are more urgent than others.

The sum is that the older I get, and as someone who is an active
communicator via many of the current means of communicating, I realize
daily that realistic expectations need to be set for ourselves and
others when it comes to response times. This however, doesn't give us a
license to be rude and never respond or take weeks to respond because
there should be a sense of urgency toward those around us...it just
doesn't mean it has to be instant.